A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 95 



Meanwhile, I carefully avoided every identification 

 of myself with the scientific circles of Manchester, 

 knowing well how jealous the public was of all such 

 pursuits until a medical man was thoroughly estab- 

 lished ; after that he might do as he liked. 



In June 1842 I married the lady to whom I 

 had been so long engaged a step which proved to 

 be the commencement of a happy career. About this 

 time an apparently trifling incident brought about 

 a change to more scientific pursuits. My wife 

 and I one day joined the tea-table of a friend, a 

 Methodist widow lady, who, my wife urged, would 

 be much gratified by our doing so. It is diffi- 

 cult to conceive of any circle less likely to exercise a 

 scientific influence over me than that which we had 

 promised to join. Nevertheless, that was exactly 

 what it did. During the evening a gentlemanly and 

 intelligent young nephew of our hostess joined the 

 gathering, and asked me if I had seen Dr. Mantell's 

 new work, " Medals of Creation." Having to answer 

 in the negative, he kindly offered to lend me his 

 copy, which he did a day or two later. 



Perusing the interesting volume, I came upon 

 some passages in which the author gave an abstract 

 of Ehrenberg's now well-known discovery, that 

 native chalk really consisted largely of a mass of 

 microscopic calcareous shells. Startled by this in- 

 formation, I naturally longed to see these objects, but 

 I had no microscope. I remembered, however, that 

 my father at Scarborough had an old " Culpepper," 



